The RSC Shakespeare : Hamlet
by Jonathan Bate (Editor), Eric Rasmussen (Editor), William Shakespeare (Playwright)
The RSC Shakespeare (Shakespeare : Hamlet)
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The Play of Plays: "Hamlet" by William Shakespeare, Jonathan Bate, Eric Rasmussen Published 2008.
“He helps us understand the human condition. But he cannot do this without a good text of the plays. Without editions there would be no Shakespeare. That is why throughout the last three centuries there has been a major new edition of his complete works.”
(Jonathan Bate)
I studied Shakespeare at Universidade de Letras de Lisboa and have seen many plays in performance since then. We read twelve plays in sixteen weeks: “A Midsummer Night's Dream”, “Romeo and Juliet”, “Richard II”, “Richard III”, “The First Part of King Henry IV”, and “Twelfth Night” among others. I did not do as well in that class as I would have show more liked. In fact, I distinctly remember not studying much for the exam because the girl with whom I was studying asked me if I was interested in going out and, since I was attracted to her, I said yes. After my professor returned my exam to me, she asked me if I would visit her during office hours to discuss my poor academic performance. I told her, "I'm not going to lie. Instead of studying, I went out with a girl in our class." Her reply, "I can hardly fault you for acting upon the sort of thing Shakespeare wrote about. I am willing to give you another chance. If you do better on the final exam, I will not weight this exam as heavily."
The rest of this review is available elsewhere. show less
“He helps us understand the human condition. But he cannot do this without a good text of the plays. Without editions there would be no Shakespeare. That is why throughout the last three centuries there has been a major new edition of his complete works.”
(Jonathan Bate)
I studied Shakespeare at Universidade de Letras de Lisboa and have seen many plays in performance since then. We read twelve plays in sixteen weeks: “A Midsummer Night's Dream”, “Romeo and Juliet”, “Richard II”, “Richard III”, “The First Part of King Henry IV”, and “Twelfth Night” among others. I did not do as well in that class as I would have show more liked. In fact, I distinctly remember not studying much for the exam because the girl with whom I was studying asked me if I was interested in going out and, since I was attracted to her, I said yes. After my professor returned my exam to me, she asked me if I would visit her during office hours to discuss my poor academic performance. I told her, "I'm not going to lie. Instead of studying, I went out with a girl in our class." Her reply, "I can hardly fault you for acting upon the sort of thing Shakespeare wrote about. I am willing to give you another chance. If you do better on the final exam, I will not weight this exam as heavily."
The rest of this review is available elsewhere. show less
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Jonathan Bate was born June 26, 1958. He is a British biographer, broadcaster, and leading Shakespeare scholar. He studied at Sevenoaks School, the University of Cambridge, and Harvard University. At Cambridge, he was a Fellow of Trinity Hall. While studying at Harvard, he held a Harness Fellowship. Bate is a professor of Shakespeare and show more Renaissance Literature at the University of Warwick. He was previously King Alfred Professor of English Literature at the University of Liverpool. He has also lectured at various universities in the United States. Bate is a Fellow of the British Academy and the Royal Society of Literature. He made the Samuel Johnson 2015 shortliast with his title Ted Hughes: The Unauthorised Life . Bate lives near Stratford-upon-Avon and is married to author and biography, Paula Byrne. They have three children. show less
Eric Rasmussen is the department chair and a professor of English at the University of Nevada, Reno. In addition to being the coeditor of the Royal Shakespeare Company's Complete Works of William Shakespeare, he has edited the authoritative editions of numerous other Elizabethan poets. Rasmussen lives in Reno, Nevada.
William Shakespeare, 1564 - 1616 Although there are many myths and mysteries surrounding William Shakespeare, a great deal is actually known about his life. He was born in Stratford-Upon-Avon, son of John Shakespeare, a prosperous merchant and local politician and Mary Arden, who had the wealth to send their oldest son to Stratford Grammar School. show more At 18, Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway, the 27-year-old daughter of a local farmer, and they had their first daughter six months later. He probably developed an interest in theatre by watching plays performed by traveling players in Stratford while still in his youth. Some time before 1592, he left his family to take up residence in London, where he began acting and writing plays and poetry. By 1594 Shakespeare had become a member and part owner of an acting company called The Lord Chamberlain's Men, where he soon became the company's principal playwright. His plays enjoyed great popularity and high critical acclaim in the newly built Globe Theatre. It was through his popularity that the troupe gained the attention of the new king, James I, who appointed them the King's Players in 1603. Before retiring to Stratford in 1613, after the Globe burned down, he wrote more than three dozen plays (that we are sure of) and more than 150 sonnets. He was celebrated by Ben Jonson, one of the leading playwrights of the day, as a writer who would be "not for an age, but for all time," a prediction that has proved to be true. Today, Shakespeare towers over all other English writers and has few rivals in any language. His genius and creativity continue to astound scholars, and his plays continue to delight audiences. Many have served as the basis for operas, ballets, musical compositions, and films. While Jonson and other writers labored over their plays, Shakespeare seems to have had the ability to turn out work of exceptionally high caliber at an amazing speed. At the height of his career, he wrote an average of two plays a year as well as dozens of poems, songs, and possibly even verses for tombstones and heraldic shields, all while he continued to act in the plays performed by the Lord Chamberlain's Men. This staggering output is even more impressive when one considers its variety. Except for the English history plays, he never wrote the same kind of play twice. He seems to have had a good deal of fun in trying his hand at every kind of play. Shakespeare wrote 154 sonnets, all published on 1609, most of which were dedicated to his patron Henry Wriothsley, The Earl of Southhampton. He also wrote 13 comedies, 13 histories, 6 tragedies, and 4 tragecomedies. He died at Stratford-upon-Avon April 23, 1616, and was buried two days later on the grounds of Holy Trinity Church in Stratford. His cause of death was unknown, but it is surmised that he knew he was dying. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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Contains
Is a study of
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- The RSC Shakespeare : Hamlet
- Original publication date
- 2008
- People/Characters
- Hamlet
- Related movies
- Royal Shakespeare Company : Hamlet (2016 | IMDb)
- Original language
- English
- Canonical DDC/MDS
- 822.33
- Disambiguation notice
- From the Royal Shakespeare Company – a fresh new edition of Shakespeare's most celebrated play.
This book includes:
* An introduction to Hamlet by award-winning scholar Jonathan Bate
* The play – with... (show all) clear explanatory notes on each page
* A scene-by-scene analysis
* An introduction to Shakespeare's career and the Elizabethan theatre
* A rich exploration of approaches to staging Hamlet
The most enjoyable way to understand a Shakespeare play is to see it or participate in it. This book presents a historical overview of Hamlet in performance, recommends film versions, takes a detailed look at specific productions and includes interviews with three leading Directors – Michael Boyd, Ron Daniels and John Caird – so that we may get a sense of the extraordinary variety of interpretations that are possible - a variety that gives Shakespeare his unique capacity to be reinvented and made 'our contemporary' four centuries after his death.
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